Five Deadly Venoms

[Abishai100]

Five Venoms aka Five Deadly Venoms is a cult 1978 Hong Kong martial arts film directed by Chang Cheh, starring the Venom Mob, and produced by the Shaw Brothers Studio, about five kung-fu fighters with unique animal styles: The Centipede, the Snake, the Scorpion, the Lizard, and The Toad. The film was listed at number 11 on Entertainment Weekly's Top 50 Cult Films list (source of information: Wikipedia).

This cult-favorite martial arts film from the East offered the story of varying styles of martial-arts fighting (mixed in with original ideas about offense-defense postures). The Five Venoms had to travel to a forest area at one point to tackle a labyrinth of super-soldiers (skilled in martial arts) who popped out from the ground or from behind trees and were arrayed as weapons-coordinated 'teams.'

This is a great movie for anyone interested in the Eastern mystique surrounding martial arts and how pedestrian interests in martial arts fighting is conducive to physique-deformity and skill-optimism storytelling.

This is the genre of film that made Bruce Lee an international sensation.

As one of those 'B-movies,' Five Deadly Venoms deserves a solid 4/5 stars.


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CENTIPEDE: We must skulk into the forest of hurdles.
SNAKE: They will be prepared for our multi-varied approach to fighting.
CENTIPEDE: We must focus on their use of weaponry!
SNAKE: What is required is a teamwork strategy.
CENTIPEDE: It may take more than one attempt.
SNAKE: Our faith in our skills will see us through.
CENTIPEDE: The forest-warriors are pure evil.
SNAKE: There must be a way to coordinate teamwork with individual skill!
CENTIPEDE: We'll have to work together to confuse our enemies.
SNAKE: This will require the contributions of Toad and Lizard perhaps.

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Five Deadly Venoms (Wikipedia)

 

[Abishai100]

Five Element Ninjas


I need to make a serious amendment here.

Five Deadly Venoms does not include the forest-labyrinth scene involving teams of warriors arrayed with weapons and working with team-strategies. That film is Five Element Ninjas (1982), which likewise invests in a storyline about team coordination and the harnessing of skills for some common goal.


While Five Element Ninjas is considered nearly-perfect in its presentation of teamwork-art, I wanted to review Five Deadly Venoms, since it stands out in its presentation of skill choreography. You judge which is better!

I have to confess that I've been guilty in confusing these two superior martial-arts cult films.

The marketing of these types of Eastern-culture 'cult' films in America (during weekend afternoon martial arts matinee presentations on American TV) preceded the availability of culture-magnification media-play such as Al Jazeera TV (interesting).



Five Element Ninjas